Watch: James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe in the First Trailer of “VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN”

Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel about the
eccentric scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his quest to create life, was
first published in 1818 and has captivated generations of readers and later,
cinema audiences, ever since.

With
a screenplay by Max Landis, Paul McGuigan directs and his stellar lead duo – including James McAvoy as Frankenstein and
Daniel Radcliffe as Igor give life to the beloved legendary monster in “Victor
Frankenstein.” At the core of this new
Frankenstein story – just like with Holmes and Watson – is the friendship
between Frankenstein and Igor.

McGuigan’s
film is an action adventure thriller where McAvoy plays the titular role of Doctor
Victor Frankenste as a brilliant scientist at the forefront of pioneering
medical research. He wants to save lives and then becomes obsessed with the
idea of creating life itself.

Igor
– a character that first appeared in movie versions of the story, but was not
in the novel – is a lowly, downtrodden, disfigured clown at a travelling circus
where his only friend is a trapeze artist, the beautiful Lorelei (played by
Jessica Brown Findlay).

“He
starts off in the script just known as ‘the hunchback’, and he works at the
circus,” explains Radcliffe. “He’s grown up there, and he’s worked there all
his life. His retreat, mentally, is to surround himself with medical books,
medical dictionaries. He’s self-taught, very intelligent, and incredibly
capable.

“One
day, when there is an accident at the circus and Lorelei falls, he rushes out
to treat her. Victor happens to be there and sees him performing impromptu
surgery. He saves this person’s life, with Victor’s help, and that’s how they
meet. At that point Victor obviously sees that he is this undervalued, abused,
savant, who has been treated terribly.”

After
Frankenstein rescues Igor from the circus, he operates to remove his
disfiguring hump and Igor, physically transformed, becomes his trusted
assistant and aids the doctor in his quest to save and, eventually, to try and
create life.

McAvoy
adds: “Our story is different from Mary Shelley’s novel; we’re not holding to
the book’s narrative, we’ve changed it quite a bit. The two main players in it
are Igor and Frankenstein, and Igor doesn’t feature in the book. It’s a clear
departure, but it’s about the same thing.
But the film does pay homage to its heritage. This film is very much born out of the zeitgeist.
When you see ‘Frankenstein’ you go, ‘Big flat-headed monster, mad scientist,
and Igor the hunchback.’ Igor was never in the book, but he is in it, because
the zeitgeist says he’s in it.”

“Victor Frankenstein” opens November 25 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.